When 14-year-old Tom Nicholson joined the new Massey Ferguson company as an apprentice a year after the Second World War ended, he could never have imagined it would be part of his life for the next 56 years.

Mr Nicholson spent 50 years and 10 months at Massey as a machine-tool fitter after walking through the gates for the first time in 1946 when it was under the control of the Standard Motor Company, taking one of its last seven-year apprenticeships.

And for the past six years he has worked, with 11 others, as a guide at Banner Lane, showing groups of visitors around the factory.

Earlier this week the 70-year-old father-of-two, grandfather-of-five and great grandfather-of-three was left shattered when AGCO announced the closure.

Now he is coming to terms with losing what has been a massive part of his life and reflecting on the years he spent as part of the then thriving Massey workforce, which included highlights such as meeting Princess Margaret when she visited the site.

"I was really concerned with the machines making components," he said. "I was repairing and conditioning machines for making gears that went into tractors.

"It was rosy until the middle to late 1970s when the redundancies and cutbacks were going on.

"There were all the union problems and 11-week strikes for better conditions and all the rest of it.

"I can't complain about Massey Ferguson with regard to not giving me a good livelihood but I was fortunate and not made redundant or anything like that - I liked my job.

"When I retired in 1997 I became a tour guide taking around visitors from overseas and locals. That finished as of Tuesday morning - even the afternoon tour was cancelled."

Mr Nicholson said the factory always had a family atmosphere which would now be lost.

He said: "There was always this attitude that it was the place to go and to work at.

"They used to come from Birmingham, Rugby, Leamington, Bedworth and Nuneaton to work there - Massey Ferguson is to tractors what Rolls-Royce is to cars.

"I shall miss it, undoubtedly, but it's the people who are there now who have got the problem - I just feel sorry for them all."

Mr Nicholson, who lives in Erithway Road, Green Lane, with wife Freda, said a lot of people in Coventry would miss the former Massey Ferguson.

He added that the partnership centres, run between industry and education with the HQ at Banner lane, would particularly miss the factory, as would the Heritage Club which holds its annual meeting at Banner Lane.

He added: "It's devastating for Coventry and a lot of people in the Coventry area.

"A cliche that's used by factory workers who have done a lot of extra time is 'if you're last out, put the cat out and put out the lights' and basically, that's it."